HOW timely that, on the weekend that Juddmonte sponsors the Irish Oaks, their stallions should feature so prominently in this column. Mind you, they appear more often than most, given that their two superstars are none other than Frankel (Galileo) and Kingman (Invincible Spirit).

This week I will give pride of place to the latter, as he sired his eighth Group/Grade winner when the three-year-old Feed The Flame landed the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris on only his fourth start. Unraced at two, he tackled stakes company for the first time when he was thrown in at the deep end, and was not disgraced, though well beaten, running fourth in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby.

One of the eight top level winners for Kingman is the Australian-born King Colorado, while the remainder come from the first five European crops by the four-time Group 1 winner. Fascinatingly, he has achieved all of this without a single member of his 2019 crop, this year’s four-year-olds, winning at either Group 1 or Group 2 level - yet. His Group 2 winners include Calyx, who this week had his breakthrough first stakes winner.

Partnership

Bred in partnership by Ecurie des Monceaux, Lordship Stud and Clear Light, Feed The Flame’s success led to some unhappiness on social media that he was being promoted as a British-bred, while Ecurie des Monceaux was proud of the fact that he was raised by them in France.

However, the colt was foaled in England, the determining factor when adding the (GB) suffix to his name, is by a British-based stallion, and has a British component to his breeding partnership.

I recall a similar incident many years ago when the introduction of suffixes came about. If memory hasn’t failed me completely, Gerald Leigh was unhappy that one of his winners was being advertised as an Irish-bred, the dam having been sent to Ireland to foal and be covered. It is an anomaly of the system, but in 95% of cases the animal is also foaled in the country of origin.

Purchased by Gerard Larrieu for $270,000 at the Arqana Yearling Sale, Feed The Flame has quickly jumped to the head of the winners produced by his unraced dam, Knyazhna, a daughter of Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells). She was acquired for €700,000 carrying the subsequent winner Savoureuse (Siyouni), but that filly was unable to find favour at the yearling sales and was retained at €190,000, despite her full-brother Sacred Life (Siyouni) being a multiple Group 3 and Grade 3 winner in France and the USA, and Grade 1-placed.

Noblewoman

In addition to the above, Knyazhna (Russian for noblewoman and bred by Viktor Timoshenko) is also dam of the Group 2-placed winner Khagan (Le Havre), the placed broodmare Queen Of The Sea (Sea The Stars), and a two-year-old colt, Gulf Legend (Dubawi), who sold in a private transaction last year to Mark McStay’s Avenue Bloodstock for €300,000.

Knyazhna has done something that the next two dams in the family have failed to do, and that is to breed a pair of stakes winners. In fact, her own dam Katyusha (Kingmambo) was also unraced, having been purchased as a foal for $850,000, and had just three successful offspring, the best of which was Migwar (Sea The Stars). A three-time winner, he was runner-up in the Group 2 Prix Conseil de Paris, beating Group 1 winners, but he failed to build on that.

The reason Katyusha sold for such a large sum was that, in addition to being a daughter of a hugely successful sire, she was an own-sister to the Group 1 St Leger winner and Group 1 Derby runner-up, Rule Of Law (Kingmambo). Their dam Crystal Crossing (Royal Academy) won a single race, but it was the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at two, and she was born a couple of years before her full-sister Circle Of Gold (Royal Academy), a Group 3 winner.

Nashwa

Not to be outdone, Frankel also sired a Group 1 winner last week, his four-year-old daughter Nashwa adding the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket to successes in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes and a classic win in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks.

The Falmouth Stakes was previously won by another daughter of Frankel, Veracious, and she shares another distinction with Nashwa, that of being out of a mare by Pivotal (Polar Falcon).

This has proven to be a very successful combination, as daughters of the Cheveley Park great, who was honoured during the July meeting at Newmarket with a life-size bronze at the stud, have also produced, by Frankel, four-time Group 1 winner Cracksman, the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes winner Wild Beauty, and the Group 1 Australian Oaks heroine Hungry Heart.

Homebred by owner Imar Al Sagar at his Blue Diamond Stud, Nashwa is the third foal and runner for her dam, and her second winner. Nashwa’s half-brother Louganini (Zoffany) won a heritage handicap at Newmarket, the best of his three wins in Britain, and last year won in Saudi Arabia. Mark McStay was mentioned earlier, and last year he spent €260,000 on Mesmerising, a now two-year-old filly by Decorated Knight (Galileo). Waiting in the wings is a yearling colt by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium).

Nerses purchase

They are all out of Princess Loulou, a 310,000gns yearling purchase by Tony Nerses. A listed winner on her final racecourse appearance at Doncaster, and group-placed in Ireland, Princess Loulou was a two-length runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet when she raced for Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar. Sold to dissolve that partnership, Princess Loulou was retained for Blue Diamond Stud Farm in 2018, carrying Nashwa, for 300,000gns.

Princess Loulou was the best of the six winners out of Aiming (Highest Honor), and they were all of her runners. Aiming was placed, while her five winning siblings included the dual listed winner and group-placed Watching (Indian Ridge).

Another winning sibling was Desert Lynx (Green Desert), and that mare’s grandson Awzaan (Alhaarth) won the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.

One of the best stories to emerge from Royal Ascot 2023 was the Group 1 success of Shaquille in the Commonwealth Cup. Now the three-year-old has gone and cemented his status as the leading sprinter this year by adding the Group 1 July Cup, taking his winnings to more than €900.000.

The colt has now won seven races in just eight starts, adding his pattern wins to a listed race success in the Carnarvon Stakes at Newbury, He is the second Group 1 winner to appear in four generations of his female line, and the other is Hooray, victorious 13 years ago in the Cheveley Park Stakes.

Charm Spirit

Hooray is by Invincible Spirit (Green Desert), and that sire is also responsible for Charm Spirit, the sire of Shaquille. Now based at Haras du Logis St Germain at a fee of €5,000, Charm Spirit went to stud at Tweenhills at a fee of £25,000. He stood alternate years between England and France, and shuttled to New Zealand.

Until now his best winners have been born in the southern hemisphere, including three Group 2 winners, three of his five Group 3 winners, and four of his seven listed winners.

Shaquille is the sole winner from the first three foals of the unraced Magic (Galileo). Her fourth is a yearling colt by Cable Bay (Invincible Spirit) and the fifth is a colt foal by Iffraaj (Zafonic). Bred by Martin Hughes and Michael Kerr-Dineen, Shaquille is raced by Hughes and partners. Magic is a daughter of Danehurst (Danehill), successful 10 times in Ireland, England, France and Italy, and at group level in each of those countries.

Danehurst’s biggest success was in the Group 2 (now Group 1) Flying Five at the Curragh. She was placed just twice, but they were when running second at Royal Ascot in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes and third in the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket.

She raced for Cheveley Park Stud, but was culled in 2012 for just 30,000gns. After that she visited Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) a few times, producing Magic and Birch Grove.

The latter won twice at three and sold at Newmarket for 70,000gns. She then returned to David Simcock, raced for another year, won a listed race in Clairefontaine, and resold for 700,000gns, 10 times her value a year previously.

Whitebeam

Would you believe it? Again, given the weekend, how apt that the final Group/Grade 1 winner of the week under review is Whitebeam (Caravaggio), a Juddmonte homebred who caused a big upset when downing In Italian in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga.

She was adding this to a previous stateside success in the Grade 3 Gallorette Stakes at Pimlico.

It says much for the professionalism and foresight of the team at Juddmonte that they could see the racing potential in the USA for a filly who won three races, latterly a handicap, in England, and had been placed second in a listed race, albeit at Newmarket. Not only that, but this latest victory gave a major pedigree boost to the next generation of a family that has already made quite an impact.

The better of a pair of winners out of her winning dam Sleep Walk (Oasis Dream), Whitebeam joins Tenebrism as the second Group/Grade 1 winner from the first crop of Caravaggio (Scat Daddy), and that year’s group also included the Group 2 Mehl-Mulhens-Rennen (German 2000 Guineas) winner Maljoom, Group 2-winning juvenile Agartha, and a number of other pattern and listed winners.

This year Caravaggio is sire of the Royal Ascot Group 3 Albany Stakes winning juvenile Porta Fortuna.

Now based in Japan, Caravaggio spent three years in Ireland before relocating to Ashford, where he completed two more seasons, all under the Coolmore banner. He has sired eight group or graded stakes winners in his first crop, one in his third crop, while his three-year-olds feature just a single stakes winner, and that was in Italy.

He stood for a fee of about €20,000 this year, and breeders had to pay that up front, though it was refundable if the pay was barren or loses the foal.

Maternal grandsire

On the dam side, Whitebeam is out of Sleep Walk, a daughter of Oasis Dream (Green Desert), and that Banstead Manor stallion is also the maternal grandsire of Group and Grade 1 winners such as Nations Pride (Teofilo), Twilight Payment (Teofilo), Sir Dragonet (Camelot), Siskin (First Defense), Iresine (Manduro) and Sioux Nation (Scat Daddy).

Sleep Walk only raced three times, and won three of them, and gave her dam, the stakes-placed Scuffle (Daylami), the perfect start to her breeding career, being her first foal.

Suffused (Champs Elysees) was born the year after Sleep Walk, and she followed a path similar to that being enjoyed now by Whitebeam, starting her winning career in Britain but thriving when sent to the USA. There she won three times at Grade 3 level and was runner-up in the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes in Canada. They are the first two of the seven winners now from Scuffle, and her tally of stakes winners has grown to three.

Collide (Frankel) won a minor listed race in France, and he was born a year before the best of Scuffle’s winners emerged. Logician (Frankel) won six of his nine starts, headlined by his victory in the 2019 Group 1 St Leger. He is now at Shade Oak Stud, with his first foals on the ground, but he is not the first stallion in the immediate family.

Scuffle’s siblings include the Group 1 winner Cityscape (Selkirk) and Banstead Manor’s own sire, Bated Breath (Dansili). Surely unlucky not to win at the highest level, Group 2 Temple Stakes winner Bated Breath was placed many times at Group and Grade 1 level, finishing runner-up to Dream Ahead in both the Haydock Sprint Cup and July Cup, and running second in the King’s Stand Stakes and in the Nearctic Stakes in Canada.

Scuffle’s unraced full-sister Tarentaise made her own impact on the family when her son Equilateral (Equiano) won the Group 2 Meydan Sprint, and like his close relation Bated Breath he was second in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes.

Scat Daddy influence is reigning supreme

THERE is a lot of mention of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) in the current column, and this time it concerns one of his less well-known sons. Seabhac is a stallion worth watching, and one is only left to ponder what he might have achieved had he stood somewhere else, and attracted bigger books of mares in his first years at stud.

Seabhac retired to Haras de Saint Arnoult in 2019 at a fee of €5,000, but this year he moved farms and was available to breeders for €3,000. Yet, his first crop of some 45 foals, now three-year-olds, contains the Group 2 German 2000 Guineas winner Angers, and the recent Group 2 Prix de Malleret winner Rue Boissonade. The latter was purchased privately in Osarus for €6,000 as a two-year-old, and comes from a solid female family.

Winner of just one race, the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes at two, Seabhac’s career ended after that. Trained by Todd Pletcher, he had been placed on his debut, run fourth in a Grade 3, and then won his third, and final, start.

He is out of a half-sister to Afleet Alex (Northern Afleet), and that colt came close to a Triple Crown, winning both the Grade 1 Belmont and Preakness Stakes, but finishing third in the Kentucky Derby. He was pensioned last year at Gainesway, having enjoyed solid success at stud.

One of four winners, and easily the best, out of the Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Saturnine, Rue Boissonade has now been successful twice over a mile and a half. Her winning siblings have all won multiple races, and they are Danileo (Danehill Dancer), Samarie (Acclamation) and Galiyouna (Siyouni). Saturnine was a €165,000 yearling who won a listed race in France, as did her dam Katchina Quest (Highest Honor).

Two of Katchina Quest’s six wins were in stakes races, and her winning full-sister Just Wood (Highest Honor) bred a pattern winner and is grandam of a number of stakes winners. They all trace back to Just Class (Dominion), the fourth dam of Rue Boissonade. Readers of a certain age will remember her, even though she was trained by Steve Norton in Yorkshire.

Ireland

Having won a maiden at Ayr and a handicap in Newcastle, Norton sent her to race a few times in Ireland, winning a pair of listed races at Leopardstown and being beaten half a length by Pixie Erin in the Group 3 (now Group 1) Matron Stakes at the Curragh. Sold to race in the USA, where she was owned by Barry Weisbord and partners, she won three Grade 3 races and another stakes race.

Just Class was a half-sister to the Group 3 St Simon Stakes winner and Group 1 Oaks d’Italia-placed Up Anchor (Slip Anchor), and that mare bred a number of smart winners, notably the Group 3 Coventry Stakes winner and Group 1-placed Red Sea (Barathea). Just Class’s dam was a full-sister to Welnor (Welsh Pageant), twice a Group 1 winner in Italy, notably in the Derby Italiano.